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Dung Hong
Professor James Celestino
ENGL 1010 – MWF 8:00am – Fall 2014
December 7, 2014
Final Argument Essay
Work Cited
Borges, Guilherme, et al. "Mexican Immigration to the U.S., the Occurrence of Violence and the
Impact of Mental Disorders." Revista Brasileira De Psiquiatria 35.2 (2013): 161-168.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Cheng, Gracye. "Gang Persecution as Grounds for Asylum in the US." Forced Migration Review
37 (2011): 50-51. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Coleman, Mathew, and Austin Kocher. "Detention, Deportation, Devolution And Immigrant
Incapacitation In The US, Post 9/11." Geographical Journal 177.3 (2011): 228-237.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014
Dwyer, James. "Illegal Immigrants, Health Care, and Social Responsibility." Hastings Center
Report 34.1 (2004): 34-41. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Farmer, Alice. "The Impact of Immigration Detention on Children." Forced Migration Review
44 (2013): 14-16. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Golden, Sabrina K., and Miroslaw J. Skibniewski. "Immigration and Construction: Analysis of
the Impact of Immigration on Construction Project Costs." Journal of Management in
Engineering 26.4 (2010): 189-195. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Molina, Natalia. "Borders, Laborers, And Racialized Medicalization: Mexican Immigration And
US Public Health Practices In The 20Th Century." American Journal of Public Health
101.6 (2011): 1024-1031. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Nickell, Stephen, and Jumana Saleheen. "The Impact of Immigration on Occupational Wages:
Evidence from Britain." Research Review 10 (2008): 14-17. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Porter, Lakeisha. "Illegal Immigrants Should Not Receive Social Services." International Social
Science Review 81.1/2 (2006): 66-72. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
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Sanders, Robert M. "Policy Point-Counterpoint: Should Illegal Immigrants And Their Children
Receive Federal And State Social Services." International Social Science Review 81.1/2
(2006): 58-60. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
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The Negative Impacts of Immigrant to United States
Immigration has been a recent controversial issue of the United States. The United States
citizen and especially those who are interested in immigration issue have been viewing this
problem more seriously. Some people believe that immigrants could bring benefit to the country
because they also help to pay the tax for the government, on the other hand, some strongly
approve that the immigrants to United States could bring some trouble to the many aspects of the
country. This debate about immigrant also is one of many issues that presidents of the United
States tried to resolve for years. The issue is taking place in the United States with specific places
such as cities, United States and Mexico border, schools, and government agencies.
Illegal immigration has a profound impact on public agencies and society in general. In a
free society such as the United States, its 5,000 miles of borders (including 2,000 with
Mexico) and hundreds of air and seaports are easy targets for those seeking to enter the
country illegally. Whereas some one million people are admitted legally into the United
States annually, approximately 400,000 enter it illegally. Indeed, it is estimated that that
there are some four to twelve million illegal aliens currently residing in the United States
(Sanders, 59).
The issue is causing extreme public repute recently and is argued base on three different
perspectives which are economy, humanities, and security to prove that illegal immigrants has
been bringing negative impacts to the United States.
First of all, immigrants could bring a burden to U.S. economy. Specially, immigration
could affect the country’s economy by harming the U.S. labor market. Many immigrants have
moved to U.S. and has been employed illegally. “Illegal immigrants are more focused around a
local network of family and friends than job-skill demand in the region” (Golden, 191). Most of
the time, they were looking for the low-payment jobs and usually agreed with limited and
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critically low salary and accepted to work under harsh conditions, for example, without specific
benefits like regular employees. This led to the issue that employers favor this type of
inexpensive labor rather than the U.S. one.
There is a popular argument that illegal immigrants do jobs that Americans will not do.
Given the reported unemployment in the construction industry of 11%, well above the
national average, this is simply not true. A more accurate argument is that Americans will
not do certain jobs for the wage paid to illegal immigrants. Studies indicated that
immigrant workers depress the wage market of the low-skilled occupations by
approximately 11%. If the illegal immigrant work force dissipates, and employers are
forced to hire native-born workers to do these jobs, the cost of labor will increase
(Golden, 191).
This caused the people of the United States who are seeking for these jobs have to face
some hardships such as low revenue, no insurance, and bad working conditions. “The United
States has experienced a recent influx of illegal immigrant workers for construction, custodial,
and domestic service jobs. Employers in these industries are unwilling to pay Americans the
appropriate wages to do these jobs when they can get twice as much labor from aliens at half the
salary. If Americans take these jobs, they must accept lower wages” (Porter, 69). Not only
threatening the benefits of the regular United States employees but illegal immigrants also act as
a risk to decrease the minimum wage of the country. “In the latter case, a 10 percentage point
rise in the proportion of immigrants working in semi/unskilled services—that is, in care homes,
bars, shops, restaurants, and cleaning, for example—leads to a 5.2 percent reduction in pay”
(Nickell, 17). “The Labor Demand Curve is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of
Immigration on the Labor Market, the national impact of immigration on the wages of native-
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born workers shows a reduction in the weekly earnings of native-born workers of 4.9% on
average” (Golden, 191).
The compositional effect is determined by the wage differential between immigrants and
native in specific occupations. A simple hourly wage equation suggests that, in
semi/unskilled services, immigrants earn 6 percent less than natives. In other words, a 10
percent rise in immigration alone would lead to a 0.6 percent fall in wages (Nickell, 17).
A previous study, The Effect of Immigrants on Low-Skilled Native Workers: Evidence
from the 1991 Current Population Survey, found remarkably similar results using only
education as an additional modifier for a particular group. For low-skilled occupations,
those requiring only a high school diploma or less, the study found a 0.7% reduction in
weekly earnings of native-born workers for every 1% increase in immigrant labor within
the occupation. With an estimate of immigrants in these low-skilled occupations between
15 and 19%, the estimate of wage reduction expected for native-born workers in these
same occupations is between 10.5 and 13%. The data for this study were taken from the
1991 (Golden, 192).
Moreover, when immigrants come to United States, the labor market of the nation will be
threatened because citizens would face unemployment easily by the huge amount of supply
provided by these illegal immigrants.
Illegal immigrants represent 36% of all insulation workers, 29% of all roofers, 28% of all
drywall installers, ceiling tile installers, and tapers, 27% of all construction helpers, 25%
of all construction laborers, brick masons, block masons, and stone masons, 22% of all
painters, 21% of all cement masons, concrete finishers, and terrazzo workers, and 20% of
all carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers (Golden, 190).
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The compositional effect is determined by the wage differential between immigrants and
natives in specific occupations. A simple hourly wage equation suggests that, in
semi/unskilled services, immigrants earn 6 percent less than natives. In other words, a 10
percent rise in immigration alone would lead to a 0.6 percent fall in wages (Nickell, 17).
Besides that, the United States government offered refuge for some countries and many
programs have been created to help immigrants from those countries to settle down in the United
States. These aided programs have raised the cost of the government budget but gradually
cannot meet the increasing of needs for them. “Illegal alien households cost the federal
government approximately $26 billion in social service and criminal justice system expenses
annually. In Los Angeles County alone, the Health Department spends $340 million annually on
emergency healthcare services for illegal aliens” (Sanders, 59). Moreover, some immigrants have
violated their rights in these programs by using trick for their own purpose to benefit themselves
from these programs and avoiding taxes after they already had their own appropriate income.
“The report indicated that 73.2% of illegal immigrants interviewed had federal income taxes
withheld” (Golden, 190). “While many Americans without health insurance struggle to pay for
medical care, many illegal immigrants do not share this concern. According to a study conducted
by the United States-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, U.S. hospitals provide at least $200
million a year in uncompensated emergency medical care to illegal immigrants” (Porter, 70).
This also led to the disagreement from the citizens that they think illegal immigrants should have
not to be granted these privilege, for instance, “College is a privilege that must be earned; no one
is "entitled" to go to college, citizen or not. If illegal immigrants are granted a college education,
it is extensively at the taxpayer's expense” (Porter, 69). This because people believe that it is an
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unfair treat to the citizen due to the fact that the people of the United States are paying tax for
these illegal immigrants’ benefits.
Secondly, the humanities aspect is also considered as one of the prospect of trouble that
immigration could bring to the United States. People realize that when the country that has many
people from different cultures could build up a magnificent multi-culture nation and help to
embellish the appearance of the nation to other nations, nevertheless, it also can brings up some
different points of view in diversity due to the dissimilar cultures. As for this issue, in order to
create appropriate environment and meet the needs for the cultures of all immigrants in the
United States, it could arouse many problems. Because people want to bring their cultures and
religions with them and it is hard to force people to leave those things behind or deny their
beliefs and tradition. This will potentially create plenty of different needs for the people to
converse their cultures and religions such as building temples, mosques, or having places for
community meeting. Nonetheless, these needs could generate some unwanted issue or would
face challenge and disagreement from the community or the neighborhood. There was a
controversy on this subject in New York City when Islamic people want to build more mosques
in order to meet their religious needs. However, they have to face the public disagreement
because the New York City’s people thought that it is a disrespected action to the victims of 9-11
event. Furthermore, because there are so many cultures and religions, it is possible to have
conflicts base on different points of view of different cultures or beliefs. . “About 43.6% reported
any experience of violence, with the highest prevalence of any violence found among the return
migrants (51.7%) and the lowest among the current immigrants from Mexico (31.8%), with the
Mexican population in the middle (41.6%)” (Borges, 163). These conflicts would affect public
security, and threaten the national security, and also cause infinite controversies for the country.
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“It is well known that the occurrence of violence may lead to PTSD and other forms of
psychopathology, such as depression, substance abuse, and suicidality, and violent events such as
rape and sexual abuse may also impact an array of mental disorders. On the other hand, serious
mental disorders have been shown to increase the risk for violent victimization, such as that
studied here” (Borges, 167). Besides that, children issue also appears in the humanities aspect.
Over more than ten years of research in Europe and beyond, Human Rights Watch
(HRW) has documented serious violations of children’s rights arising from immigration
detention of children.1 Children may be arbitrarily detained, held in cells with unrelated
adults, and subjected to brutal treatment by police, guards and other authorities. They are
often held in poor conditions that fall far short of international standards governing
appropriate settings for children deprived of their liberty (Farmer, 14).
Children from other countries that immigrate to the United States could face many harms
such as being used or abused. Especially, children who have to face detention because of their
illegal immigration status. “In detention facilities, children may be exposed to violence or
exploitation” (Farmer, 15). This evidently provides good atmosphere for bad people to violate
the basic human rights and mistreat the children causing huge criminal issue and also attract
human trafficking. Furthermore, the issue could cost the government enormous time and money
to resolve the problem fairly and satisfactorily.
Last but not least, immigration would cause more or less security issues to the states and
might threaten the safety of country. Some immigrants could be terrorists that could do harm to
the nation. The authentic example is the 9-11 event that ended up with the discovery of those
terrorists who were immigrants from other countries. Moreover, there might be some people who
come to the country with bad purposes, for instance, they could covertly carry dangerous
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materials, drugs, explosive chemicals, or diseases to the country. “In October 1916, for example,
the cover of the California State Board of Health Monthly Bulletin was emblazoned with a
photograph of Mexican men, women, and children who lived in the railroad camps. The caption,
‘The type of people who are bringing typhus and other diseases into California from Mexico’”
(Molina, 1027).
Tuberculosis had been virtually eliminated from the U.S., but it is now making a
comeback, thanks, in part, to illegal immigration. Chagas disease, also known as
American Trypanosomiasis, is an infection caused by the parasite, trypanosomacmzi.
Worldwide, it is estimated that sixteen to eighteen million people are infected with the
disease; of those infected, 50,000 die annually. This disease had not appeared in the
United States until it recently infected the nation's blood supply. There have been several
cases of leprosy that have emerged and can be traced to illegal immigrants from India,
Brazil, the Caribbean, and several Latin American countries. The West Nile Vims, which
originated in Afiica, did not exist in the United States until 1998. Since then, tens of
thousands of people have been infected with this disease in at least twenty-one states.
Cases of malaria and polio are also reappearing as native-born Americans are exposed to
these diseases (Porter, 70).
Generally, people believe that United States is the land of dream where the people’s
effort and hardworking will give them a great reward. Because of that, people are also ready to
do anything to achieve their dreams as fast as possible. On the other hand, some illegal
immigrants think that they will do everything to achieve their dream including committing crime
or participating in criminal activities in order to make a living in United States. There are some
cases that illegal immigrants have committed human trafficking or drug dealing. These activities
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not only harm the United States citizens and threaten the safety of the society but also can cause
miserable lives for those people who are from other countries that have been victims for these
crimes. Moreover, there are gangs base on these immigrants’ origin such as Asian gangs,
Mexican gangs, these people could run illegal business that could cause harm to the nation and
increase the heat of the conflict that correlates with different cultures and religions. “Daniel
Sharp, legal director of the Central American Resource Center says that the US government
operates on the assumption that anyone coming from south of the border is seeking a better life
economically. But, he estimates, half or more of the asylum cases being filed by Central
American immigrants are related to street gangs, an observation that is unsurprising given the
actual situation in many of these countries” (Cheng, 51). Besides that, many criminal
organizations from other countries also involve in this issue by using immigration as a tool to
infiltrate the country stealthily. This helps them to expand their business and in some ways
undermine the United States by distributing illegal materials to the nation.
In conclusion, this issue is complicated and the specific solution is depended on the
decision of the people. It is the determination of the people to the immigration issue and the
future of the nation, by voting and expressing their point of view freely, the resolution will be
found. Recently, there are opinion for the resolution for this issue base on experts’ ideas that “if
the United States would reposition its military forces currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan,
Kuwait and other countries where they are really not needed, they could be used to police the
country's borders effectively. There should also be a ban on hiring illegal aliens. Success would
require enforcing laws to ensure that all new hires are authorized to work in the United States
and imposing stiff fines on businesses that knowingly employ illegal aliens” (Porter, 71). This is
a great proposal in order to deal with the illegal immigration problem.